BART board owns up to illegal vote to fire boss

TRANSIT

BART directors officially fessed up Thursday to their illegal vote two weeks earlier to fire General Manager Dorothy Dugger - but her fate as head of the transit district remains unclear.

The vote to terminate the general manager, taken in a closed session, was quickly rescinded when it became clear it violated state open meeting laws, but neither action was ever reported to the public, as mandated.

Before the vote, Christine Monsen, a BART rider and retired executive director of the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority, lambasted the move to fire Dugger, noting that she had balanced the agency's budget in tough economic times, advanced the campaign to strengthen the system against earthquakes and exacted valuable changes in work rules from BART's unions.

"I'm here to tell you that you should be ashamed of yourselves," she said.

Murray was the only board member to respond, noting that the board never gave Dugger the chance to answer criticisms and said that the vote was handled in a "disgraceful way."

Since the initial vote to fire the general manager, board members and Dugger have been quiet about her future with the transit agency. But a committee of directors has been negotiating with the general manager.